Very exciting news!
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court Public Financing Pilot Project (HB 4130)
passed the House of Delegates by a vote of 67-30! Although, we've
cleared significant legislative hurdles in the past, it was the first
time that any chamber of the West Virginia legislature has ever voted
on, let alone approved, a public financing bill.

Several amendments
were offered to the bill during Second Reading, only one of which was
adopted. That amendment removed the tax refund check-off option as a
funding source. This was not a central funding source, and we have never
seen an estimate of an amount projected to be provided by it. The other
amendments offered, which were rejected, were: 1) to make the elections
covered in this project non-partisan; 2) to again remove the court fees
- which were taken out by Judiciary and restored in Finance - as a
funding source; and 3) to place any unspent monies at the end of the
pilot project into the Rainy Day Fund instead of General Revenue.

There was quite a
bit of debate on the floor when the bill was up for passage. There was,
of course, opposition to some of the funding sources, and to the
philosophy of public financing in general. Perhaps the most eloquent
proponent of the pilot project was long-time sponsor Del. Patrick Lane
(R- Kanawha), who stated that while the perception of money's influence
in legislative politics is negative, "money in the judiciary is
abhorrent." West Virginia Public Broadcasting captured the debate. (http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13644.)

HB 4130 has been
reported to the Senate and assigned to the Judiciary and Finance
Committees. We have every reason to believe that Judiciary Chair Jeffrey
Kessler (D-Marshall), a long-time supporter of public financing, will
handle the bill expeditiously. However, we will need all possible votes,
so please contact your Senators and ask them to support this bill.

Our next coalition
meeting will take place after the session is over, on Wednesday, March
17 at 1:30 PM at the Catholic Diocese (1116 Kanawha Blvd, E.). We hope
to be discussing implementation efforts, but will also certainly
celebrate this week's significant victory. We will continue to keep you
updated. In the meantime, please call your Senators and ask for their
support!

Wednesday was
Crossover Day at the legislature. It’s a neutral-sounding term for the
day when most bills under consideration die because they haven’t passed
out of their house of origin. In other words, all House bills must have
passed out to the Senate and visa versa or they’re defunct. Out of the
2,078 bills introduced this session, only 320 are still in play. This is
both bad and good news. Bad because most of the bills we were supporting
are now dead including Surface Owners’ Rights, 100% broadband access,
nearly all of the good enviro bills, etc. On the other hand, many of the
bad bills we were fighting are also dead, such as the severance tax on
wind energy to pay for clean coal research, the repeal of the nuclear
ban, etc.

One caveat needs
mentioning – at this point bills are “dead” unless leadership REALLY
wants them to pass. Bills can still be originated in committee or
amended into other bills which are still moving. Parliamentary rules can
be suspended and things made to happen that are outside of the normal
process.

One bill that might
enjoy these special accommodations is SB 369. This bad bill was passed
out of the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining (EIM) committee which met,
not in its committee room, but on the Senate floor right after a floor
session. This bill, a gift to the oil and gas industry, would make all
Marcellus gas wells “shallow wells” and thus allow drillers to steal gas
from under neighboring properties instead of being subject to deep well
“pooling” which divides up the royalties between all mineral owners
whose gas is being accessed (see more on next page). This “right of
capture” (legalized stealing) goes back to British common law where it
was deemed OK to shoot your neighbor’s deer if it came onto your
property. The EIM committee members (especially Chairman Green,
D-Raleigh) get lots of campaign donations from the oil and gas industry
– go figure!

This is the last
issue of Capitol Eye for the session since lawmakers quit at
midnight Saturday, March 13. Watch your e-mail for action alerts all
next week as we chase bills down to the wire. We’ll send out a session
wrap-up issue after the dust settles (and we catch our breath) in a few
weeks.

Thanks for all your
support and keep those membership renewals coming in! Your support makes
it possible for us to battle at the Capitol…

Catch Us On-Line

By the time you
receive this newsletter, the Legislative Session will only have one week
to go. Because the session ends on Saturday, March 13, there will be no
Capital Eye next Friday. But a lot can happen in the
Session’s final week! Stay in touch by signing up for CAG Action
Alerts. Over the next week, as bills die and (sometimes) come back to
life like unwanted zombies you need to stay informed. You can do that
by sending your e-mail address to
linda@wvcag.org.

The Governor’s
Amendment (HJR 101) to allow counties to exempt “new” business personal
property for taxation sailed through the House of Delegates last week
and now rests in Senate Judiciary. The premise behind the amendment is
that taxes on inventory, machinery, equipment and other business
personal property are hurting capital investment and manufacturing
employment. Business personal property taxes account for 18% or $260
million in county revenues.

If the proposed
amendment is passed by the legislature, then voters would decide in
November whether counties would have the authority to abolish the tax.
If voters support the measure then county commissions would have to pass
an ordinance by vote to lower business taxes.

Proponents like the Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturing Association
argue that abolishing business personal property taxes will create
enough economic activity (i.e. manufacturing growth) to make up for any
revenue losses. In other words, we need to tax cut our way to
prosperity. So far, proponents have provided no evidence to
substantiate this claim.

The truth is
corporate tax cuts do not pay for themselves. Moreover, this discussion,
like all discussions regarding business tax cuts, completely ignores the
benefits businesses receive from local public structures such as
education, transportation, and other services. By forcing reductions in
public services, tax cuts may impede economic and employment growth. The
last thing we should do in a recession is add to the unemployment roles.

Since
overall tax collections will likely decrease if a county decides to
exempt business personal property, this will either result in a cut in
school services or a tax shift onto other taxpayers. Either way, it’s a
bad deal.

Please
contact Senate Judiciary Chair Jeff Kessler (304-357-7880) and let him
know that working families shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of more
taxes so rich companies can get a tax break.

Last week an awful
bill to change the definition of “shallow wells” (SB 369) was passed by
the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee during a hastily called
meeting held in the back of the Senate Chamber. Despite our efforts to
educate senators about the ramifications of the bill for West Virginia
surface and mineral owners, the Senate passed the bill this week. It is
now assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Please contact your
Delegates and House Judiciary Committee members and urge them to oppose
SB 369.

SB 369 would change
the definition of a "shallow well" so that it applies to vertical
Marcellus Shale wells. This would essentially legalize stealing of
gas from neighboring mineral owners. Unlike wells defined as "deep
wells," "shallow wells” are not subject to well spacing and royalty
sharing laws which allow mineral owners whose natural gas is drained by
wells on their neighbors to receive their share of the royalties. If
Marcellus wells aren't subject to those laws, gas drillers could drill
on the edge of a neighboring mineral owners' land and drain gas from
that tract without paying for it. One Marcellus Shale well could
start out taking more than $1,000 a day in royalties from a neighboring
mineral owner.

The bill is also bad
for surface owners because, without well spacing, there can be more of
these larger sites on the surface, with no limit on how close together
they can be.
Well spacing is good for surface owners because only the number of wells
necessary to produce the gas will be drilled. Without well spacing, the
“rule of capture” applies resulting in extra, unnecessary wells being
drilled as unscrupulous drillers, who are paid by the well, will try to
be the first to get the gas from the same pool.

Well spacing is also
good for consumers because drilling fewer wells to get out more gas
means less cost to get out the gas. It is good for everyone else in the
process because it saves money and produces more gas than when the “rule
of capture” applies.

We have requested a
public hearing on the bill to slow it down, and will let you know ASAP
if one is scheduled. Please contact Judiciary Chairman Miley
(304-340-3252) and ask him to leave SB 369 off his agenda.

Public
Hearing Monday on Marcellus Shale “Water Bill” – Good Bill

The Senate Natural
Resources Committee will hold a public hearing Monday, March 8 at 1:00
PM on HB 4513, the Marcellus Shale Water Bill in the Senate Judiciary
Room, 208 West, at the State Capitol.

HB 4513 establishes
additional requirements for the drilling and fracturing of Marcellus
Shale gas wells. These requirements are necessary in order to protect
rivers and streams from becoming dewatered by stream withdrawals or
contaminated by disposal of wastewater produced in the drilling and
fracturing process.

The bill would
require that prior to drilling, fracturing or stimulating Marcellus
Shale gas wells that use large volumes of water, operators must submit
specific information regarding water withdrawals to WV DEP’s Office of
Oil and Gas.

The WV Environmental
Council will have talking points available (www.wvecouncil.org)
and you can also find more information at
www.wvsoro.org. If you can't attend, please contact your Senators
on the Natural Resources Committee and ask them to vote in favor of this
importantbill aimed at protecting our
water resources from Marcellus gas well drilling.

We are extremely
disappointed to report the Surface Owners' Rights Recognition Act (SB
529 and HB 4408) failed to get a hearing in either the House or the
Senate. We'll have more details on what happened soon, along with
information on our future plans to advance surface owners' rights in
West Virginia. In the meantime, please know we appreciate your continued
support, dedication, and enthusiasm for
this issue. We couldn't keep going without YOU. You calls, e-mails and
letters, as well as your financial support sustain and enhance our
efforts. Thanks for all you do!

On Tuesday, March 9,
a vanload of West Virginians is going to get deputized and participate
in a citizens’ arrest of Big Insurance CEOs! We will meet up with
thousands of others from other Health Care For America Now affiliates at
Dupont Circle, Washington, DC, march to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, shut
down the streets and muck up the big meeting. We want to remind these
big-wigs that citizens want Congress to put us first, not insurance
profits. We know these CEOs have been fighting hard to kill reform with
their lobbyists and their money and we aren’t happy.

There’s still time
to join us (we are leaving at 3:00AM on Tuesday morning) but we need to
hear from you right away – call me at 304-346-5891 for more
information.

Please get your
petitions in opposing the sale of Verizon land lines to Frontier by next
week. We will deliver them to the WV Public Service Commission on
March 16 at a Communication Workers of America rally which begins at
11:15AM. Join us in opposing this sale that would leave West
Virginians in danger of depending on an underfunded and understaffed
provider for nearly all of our land-based telephone service. Remember
that in similarly structured deals in New England and Hawaii the small
receiving company went bankrupt leaving the states to pick up the mess.

You can download the
petition at
www.wvcag.org. Watch for an upcoming action alert for more details
on the March 16 rally in the near future.

Alas, the hope we
had for a bill (SB 694) to require Verizon to actually provide the
broadband coverage it spends so much to advertise was squashed when a
Senate Judiciary subcommittee let it die.

The scenario went
like this: Monday 9AM subcommittee meets with Senators Browning (chair),
Yost and Hall. Much discussion ensued with a hoard of Verizon lobbyists,
the PSC Consumer Advocate, and WV-CAG in attendance. However, the
subcommittee adjourned without taking action because the full Judiciary
Committee was waiting to meet. When the subcommittee reconvened at
2:45PM to a room full of supporters including WV-CAG, AARP and the
Communication Workers of American, the only motion considered was to
adjourn. A surgical strike by Verizon lobbyists!

Please let Senator
Browning know you’re unhappy he killed broadband for all West Virginians
(Capitol: (304) 357-7807, Business: (304) 732-6707,
e-mail:
richardbrowning@verizon.net). Ask him if he has Verizon broadband
and, if so, shouldn’t every one of Verizon’s customers?

As mentioned
earlier, the House companion bill (HB 4618) did not survive Crossover
Cutoff…

WV-CAG’s Annual
Spring Fundraiser is happening on Friday, April 16 at the Woman’s Club
in Charleston. We are pleased to announce that our musical
entertainment will be the Voo-Doo Katz again this year so be ready to
boogie into the evening to their great tunes!

Tickets are just $30
a person which includes our dinner buffet. We’ll also feature our
ever-growing silent auction.

For tickets, please
call us at 304-346-5891 or e-mail
linda@wvcag.org. Sponsorships really help fund our program work so
if you can afford to donate more we have $150, $250 and $500
sponsorships levels. We hope to see you at the Woman’s Club!

As our last
Capital Eye of this legislative session goes to press, it’s time to
thank our wonderful volunteers who helped us get this newsletter out the
door every Friday afternoon. This year they were particularly brave as
the weather was crazy and relentless. We truly couldn’t keep our sanity
without them. A big thank you to Peter Harris, Eleanor Spohr, Elizabeth
Harris, Susan Wellons, Kim Lucas and Nicky Lucas!

Our gratitude also
goes out to Marge Michau for keeping us organized, feeding us fed on
Crazy Fridays, and fighting victoriously with the copy machine.

We would also like
to send a shout-out to Laura, Cyndi and Maria at The Phillips Group.
Their magical software helps us save money on postage for this
newsletter. We appreciate them making time to help us in such a big
way.